Inside the unprepared city that ‘has to change’ after devastating floods leave lives in ruin

Published

3 years ago

July 17, 2021

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Verviers is nicknamed the water capital of its region because the city used the River Meuse to build its wealth in the textile industry.

The river flows through the centre of the Belgian town.

That’s why there was so much damage when it exploded over its banks a few days ago, turning the streets into torrents of water flowing several metres deep.

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The city, like so many others, simply wasn’t prepared.

As Verviers residents wearily clean the stinking mud out of their ruined homes, thoughts are turning to the fragility of the infrastructure that supports life here; how quickly all the fabric of our modern world was ripped apart.

There is still no power, no cabled internet, patchy mobile phone signal, and in some areas, no fresh water.

Many of the roads and bridges are shut, and the pavements are piled high with rubbish.

Nameer Laghzaoui takes us into his ruined pizza shop. Piles of gluey flour line the floor. He shows us the basement – all his wiring and fuse boxes sit, dripping.

He said: “It is all gone. Ruined.”

I ask if he wants to go, move further away from the water.

“No, I will stay, I have to.”

His whole life savings are in this business, and he has no choice but to wait for insurance to pay out and hope it doesn’t happen again.

A few metres away we find Louis Pirout working hard to find out just how badly the town’s power supply and wiring has been damaged.

His job is to restore TV services

Was the town ready, I asked?

“No. Absolutely not.

“We are a crowded town around the river which is why it was so bad.”

He doesn’t know how long it will take to get everything back on line.

There are huge holes in the pavements everywhere, exposing mangled pipes and cabling. It doesn’t look like a quick job.

Up and down the streets there are people delivering bottles of fresh water.

One of the reasons for that is businesses nearby aren’t open to sell anything.

We ventured into an all but destroyed supermarket to find the owner, Francoise Wilmain, surveying the damage.

He cannot see how he will be able to reopen.

“It was my business, my life, it is finished.”

On one street closest to the river Meuse a huge clean up is underway. Mountains of furniture, pots, books pile high under the hot sun as people salvage what they can.

Valerie Corman told us how she thought the city didn’t give them enough warning.

She said: “The city is going to have to change.”

She also said that she hopes during the rebuilding process, they find a way to create better flood defences, so if it happens again, the damage won’t be so great.

World

Keir Starmer talks up US-UK relationship – but questions remain over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles

Published

2 hours ago

September 14, 2024

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Keir Starmer talks up US-UK relationship - but questions remain over Ukraine's use of long-range missiles

Sir Keir Starmer has talked up the US-UK relationship after a White House meeting with Joe Biden, but questions remain over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles.

The prime minister travelled to Washington this week to meet with President Biden to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza – among other issues.

Speaking before the “long and productive” meeting held in the White House on Friday, Sir Keir said the two countries were “strategically aligned” in their attempts to resolve the war.

Afterwards, he skirted around questions regarding Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles, saying: “We’ve had a long and productive discussion on a number of problems, including Ukraine, as you’d expect, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, talking strategically about tactical decisions.

“This isn’t about a particular decision but we’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA (UN General Assembly) in just a few days’ time with a wider group of individuals, but this was a really important invitation from the president to have this level of discussion about those critical issues.”

Ukraine war latest: Putin threatens NATO with ‘war’

Decisions loom for Ukraine’s key Western allies as Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently increased pressure on them to permit his forces to use long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory.

However, despite repeated calls for a decision, the West has so far resisted green-lighting the use of the missiles.

Two US officials familiar with the discussions said they believed that Sir Keir was seeking US approval to let Ukraine use British Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes into Russia, according to Reuters news agency.

They added that they believed Mr Biden would be amenable.

The president’s approval would be needed because Storm Shadow components are made in the US.

But when speaking to journalists after the meeting, Sir Keir was repeatedly pressed on the long-range missile question but evaded giving a firm decision.

“This wasn’t a meeting about a particular capability. That wasn’t why we got our heads down today,” he said.

The US has been concerned that any step could lead to an escalation in the conflict and has moved cautiously so far, however, there have been reports in recent days that Mr Biden might shift his administration’s policy.

It wasn’t much, but it’s a start

There wasn’t much to say at the end, but it’s a start.

Both sides in these discussions had spent some time playing down expectations and the Americans were insistent their stance wasn’t changing on Ukraine and long-range missiles.

“Nothing to see here” seemed to be the message.

Only, there clearly was – a glance at the headlines gave that the lie.

It’s not every day a Russian president threatens war with the West.

The UK and US were discussing a change in strategy because they must – anything less would be a dereliction of duty for two leaders pledging a commitment to Ukraine’s fight.

Just ask Kyiv’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Following the meeting, Sir Keir Starmer said they’d talked tactics and strategy.

It will have had missiles, range, and Russian territory at the heart of it.

That is the material change in strategy demanded by Ukraine and supported widely among its backers.

A plan discussed by both sides of the special relationship will now be floated to other, allied nations in an effort to build a coordinated coalition behind a change in strategy.

And they’ll do it against the clock.

There is the unpredictability of the war itself in Ukraine and no less certainty surrounding the political battle at home.

A Trump victory in November’s US election would change the picture – here and there.

Vladimir Putin previously threatened the West, warning that allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory would put Moscow “at war” with NATO.

Speaking to Russian state television, he insisted the decision would “significantly change” the nature of the war.

He added: “This will be their direct participation, and this, of course, will significantly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.

“This will mean that NATO countries, US, European countries are at war with Russia.

“If this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.”

When asked about the threats, Mr Biden brushed them aside, saying: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”

There remains some scepticism within the US over the impact that allowing Kyiv to unleash long-range missiles would have.

US officials, according to Reuters, have pointed out that Ukraine already has the capability to strike into Russia using drones, and while US missiles would enhance that they are too costly and limited in number to change the overall picture.

World

British citizen among 37 people sentenced to death in DR Congo over failed coup

Published

5 hours ago

September 14, 2024

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British citizen among 37 people sentenced to death in DR Congo over failed coup

A British citizen is among 37 people who have been sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after being found guilty of an attempted coup in the central African country.

A foreign office spokesperson told Sky News they are giving consular assistance to “a British man detained in DRC” and are in contact with the local authorities.

“We have made representations about the use of the death penalty to the DRC at the highest levels, and we will continue to do so.”

Three US citizens, a Belgian and a Canadian were also among those sentenced, along with several Congolese.

Judge Major Freddy Ehuma, speaking at an open-air military court in Kinshasa that was broadcast live on television, said they had been given “the harshest penalty, that of death”.

The defendants have five days to appeal their verdicts after being convicted on charges that included terrorism, murder and criminal association.

Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June.

Six people were killed during the attempted coup in May, which was led by Christian Malanga, a little-known opposition figure.

The rebels occupied DRC President Felix Tshisekedi’s office in the presidential palace for almost an hour before they were arrested, mediacongo.net said.

Mr Malanga was fatally shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said.

Mr Malanga’s 21-year-old son, Marcel, who is a US citizen, was convicted, along with fellow Americans, Tyler Thompson Jr and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun.

Marcel Malanga’s mother Brittney Sawyer has said her son is innocent and was simply following his father, who believed himself to be president of a shadow government in exile.

Mr Thompson Jr flew from Utah with Mr Malanga for what his family believed was a holiday. Mr Zalman-Polun, 36, is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company set up in Mozambique in 2022.

Mr Thompson Jr’s family said he didn’t know what Christian Malanga was scheming and wasn’t even planning to enter the DRC.

The British citizen has not been named.

Earlier this year, the DRC reinstated the death penalty after more than 20 years amid growing violence and militant attacks.

Despite that, Richard Bondo, the lawyer who defended the six foreigners, said he disputed whether the death penalty could be imposed and said his clients had inadequate interpreters during the investigation.

He said they would appeal.

World

Stranded astronauts say space is ‘happy place’ – but admit ‘tough times’

Published

5 hours ago

September 14, 2024

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Stranded astronauts say space is 'happy place' - but admit 'tough times'

Two astronauts who are set to be stuck in space for eight months have said the International Space Station is now their “happy place” but admitted to “tough times”.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said in a press conference on Friday that it was hard to watch their Boeing Starliner capsule return to Earth without them last week – but said they do not feel let down by the company.

The pair expected to be in space for eight days but will remain there until 2025 after NASA determined the problem-plagued capsule posed too much risk for them to return to Earth.

The two Starliner test pilots – both retired Navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts – will now be staying at the space station until late February.

“That’s how it goes in this business,” said Ms Williams, adding that “you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity”.

Mr Wilmore said: “It’s been quite an evolution over the last three months, we’ve been involved from the beginning through all the processes of assessing our spacecraft.

“And it was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through.”

Ms Williams said that the transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had completed previous stints there.

“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said.

Mr Wilmore said he was “on board” with “changes that need to be made” at Boeing.

“Obviously, when you have issues like we’ve had, there’s some changes that need to be made.

“Boeing’s on board with that. We’re all on board with that.”

He added: “When you push the edge of the envelope again and you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, just like Starliner, you’re going to find some things.”

The pair also said they will vote in November’s US elections.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams are now fully-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine maintenance and experiments.

They, along with seven others on board, welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, raising the station population to 12 – a near record.

Ms Williams will soon take over as station commander.

The pair will have to wait until next year for a SpaceX capsule to bring them back to Earth. That spacecraft is due to launch later this month with a reduced crew of two, with two empty seats for the stranded astronauts for the return leg.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams also said they appreciated all the prayers and well wishes from Earth.

Mr Wilmore revealed he will miss out on family milestones including his youngest daughter’s final year of high school.

Their Starliner capsule marked the first Boeing spaceflight with astronauts. It endured a series of thruster failures and helium leaks before arriving at the space station on 6 June.

It landed safely in the New Mexico desert earlier this month, but Boeing’s path forward in NASA’s commercial crew programme remains uncertain.

The space agency hired SpaceX and Boeing as an orbital taxi service a decade ago after the shuttles retired. SpaceX has been flying astronauts since 2020.